Jean Monnet was born
on 9 November 1888 in Cognac, France, into a family of cognac merchants. At
the age of sixteen, after passing only the first pat of his
university-entrance examinations, he abandoned his formal education and
moved to London. There, he spent two years learning business and the primary
language of commerce, English. In 1906, his father sent him abroad to work
for the family business. Do not bring any books,” his father advised him.
“No one can think for you. Look out the window, talk to people...”
Subsequently, Monnet made many business trips worldwide, travelling to
Scandinavia, Russia, Egypt, Canada, and the United States.

“I am not an
optimist; I am determined”

In 1914, discharged
from the military for health reasons, Jean Monnet sought to serve his
country in other ways. In his mind, the only path that would lead to an
Allied victory lay in the fusion of France and England’s war efforts.
However, he observed that, in reality, the Allies were acting independently
rather than collectively. He proposed a plan that would co-ordinate the
Allies’ war resources; the French President of the Council agreed that it
should be implemented.

Due to his
effectiveness during the war, Jean Monnet was named Secretary General of the
League of Nations upon its creation in 1919, at the age of thirty-one, by
Clémenceau and Balfour. He resigned from this position in 1923 in order to
devote himself to managing the family business, which was experiencing some
difficulty. As an international financier, he proved to be instrumental in
the economic recovery of several Central and Eastem European nations,
helping to stabilise the Polish Zloty in 1927 and the Romanian Leu
in 1928. In 1929, his experience in international finance led him to
found and co-manage the Bancamerica-Blair, a large U.S. bank in San
Francisco. From 1934 to 1936, at the invitation of Chiang Kai-shek, Monnet
lived in China, assisting with the reorganisation of their railway network.

lnitially
commissioned in 1938 by Edouard Daladier to negotiate an order for French
military aircraft with the United States, Jean Monnet was sent to London in
December 1939 by the French and British governments. There, he oversaw the
collectivisation of the two countries’ production capacities. When the
French were defeated in June 1940, Monnet’s influence inspired de Gaulle and
Churchill to accept the plan for the total union of France and the United
Kingdom — a fusion which was to enable the two countries to stand up to
Nazism — whereas Pétain accepted the defeat of France and signed the
armistice.

In August 1940, Jean
Monnet was sent to the United States by the British government as a member
of the British Supply Council, in order to negotiate the purchase of war
supplies. Soon after his arrival in Washington, he became one of President
Roosevelt’s most trusted advisers. He persuaded the President to launch a
massive arms production programme to supply the Allies with military
material. Indeed, America was to become the arsenal of democracies”; for
months, Monnet worked unrelentingly toward this goal. In 1941, President
Roosevelt, with Churchill’s agreement, launched the Victory Program, which
represented the forceful entry of the United States into the war effort.
According to the economist Keynes, this “shortened the war by one year.”

In 1943, Monnet
became a member of the National Liberation Committee, the free French
government in Algiers. On 5 August, he addressed the Committee:
“There will be no peace in Europe if the States
rebuild themselves on the basis of national sovereignty, with its
implications of prestige politics and economic protection (...). The
countries of Europe are not strong enough individually to be able to
guarantee prosperity and social development for their peoples. The States of
Europe must therefore form a federation or a European entity that would make
them into a common economic unit.”

Following the
Liberation, at the request of General de Gaulle, Jean Monnet designed and
implemented the national modernisation and development plan that made it
possible to revive the French economy.

“To create Europe
is to create peace”

In 1950, in the face
of rising international tensions, Jean Monnet felt that the time had come to
attempt an irreversible step toward uniting the European countries. In his
house in Houjarray, he and his team conceived the idea of the European
Community. On 9 May 1950, with the agreement of Chancellor Adenauer, Robert Schuman made a declaration in
the name of the French government. Prepared by Jean Monnet, this declaration
proposed placing all the Franco-German production of steel and coal under a
common High Authority open to the other countries of Europe.
“Through
the consolidation of basic production and the institution of a new High
Authority, whose decisions will bind France, Germany and the other countries
that join, this proposal represents the first concrete step towards a
European federation, imperative for the preservation of peace,”
declared Robert Schuman. Soon the
Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
replied favourably. Thus the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was
born, laying the foundation of the European Community. In 1952, Jean Monnet
became the first President of the High Authority.

In 1955, in order to
revive European construction following the failure of the European Defence
Community (EDC), Jean Monnet founded the Action Committee for the United
States of Europe. Bolstered by his tireless impetus, this committee, which
joined political parties and European trade unions, became a driving force
behind all initiatives in favour of the European Union, including the
creation of the Common Market, the European Monetary System, the European
Council, British membership in the Cormmunity, and election to the European
Parliament by universal suffrage.

Until even his last
days, Jean Monnet was firm in his conviction that the European nations had
to unite in order to survive. “Continue, continue,
there is no future for the people of Europe other than in union,” he
repeated constantly. Throughout his life, he had one objective: “Make men work together show them that beyond their
differences and geographical boundaries there lies a common interest.”

Retired in his house
at Houjarray, Jean Monnet devoted his final energies to writing his Mémoires,
in which he recorded the lessons of his experience and his mode of action
for generations to come. He died on 16 March 1979 at the age of ninety-one.
His ashes are now in the Panthéon.

Jean Monnet liked to
quote this saying from Dwight Morrow “There are two categories of men: those
who want to be someone and those who want to do something.” It there was
ever a man who could be placed in the second category without hesitation,
Monnet is that man. In fact, he agreed wholeheartedly, adding, “There is
Iess competition.”

At the European
Council in Luxembourg on 2 April 1976, the heads of State and government
proclaimed Jean Monnet an “Honorary Citizen of Europe”.